A number of unknowns remain, however, according to the main opposition party. The Minister of Education is giving himself a legal basis to take sanitary measures that will be considered justified if the numbers increase. But this is precisely the route that no one from the opposition or the majority parties wanted to take at the beginning of the crisis, says Claude Wiseler:
"These are very restrictive measures. Private childcare centres and crèches could be closed, for instance. This is a constitutional liberty, the freedom to trade, being infringed. For this, we would like a legal framework that is far more precise than what we have in this law. It should specify when, what, why, where and for how long? These questions must be answered in the law, rather than just mentioning a generic possibility."
Up until now, all measures regarding education came by way of recommendations. This will change with the new law and affect all infrastructures that are subject to sanitary measures, explains Gilles Baum, MP from the DP:
"This isn't just schools, but also maisons relais, crèches, childminders, music schools, the Lasep, the SNJ. What's important with this law, because we know we have to react quickly and flexibly, is that this must be governed by a grand-ducal regulation."
According to the president of the Health Commission, Mars Di Bartolomeo, parliament had always insisted that the legal basis, both for general measures and for Education, should be the most solid legal basis possible and had to underlie parliamentary control:
"With this law, we are attempting to improve the legal basis on the one hand, and on the other hand to maintain a level of flexibility which will allow us to react quickly and also locally."
The State Council will still need to give its input before the new law will be voted by MPs by the end of the week
